


Manifest: reWIND

by Ujon Nocturne (Jeino)



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-09-19
Updated: 2011-09-19
Packaged: 2017-10-23 21:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/255046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeino/pseuds/Ujon%20Nocturne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The hougyoku has existed a very long time, and though it sleeps, it has both displayed and witnessed immense power. Feared, desired, loathed, used. Created, abandoned, and then stolen. Is it so impossible for it to develop a consciousness of its own?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Speculation

**Author's Note:**

> Before anything, I'd like to announce that this piece, in fact, is a remake of an older work which I began writing in 2009.
> 
> I've decided to rewrite the whole story. For those who've actually read the first version, I know it’s been a real long while, but I never intended to abandon Manifest, so if you’ll bear with me and stay for just a bit longer—I promise you something bigger and better than what I’d attempted before. It would be a complete waste to just scrap the plot after everything. I mean sure, Kubo’s actually made my idea canon already: the consciousness of the stone thing. But even so, I want to continue with my idea and turn the concept—at least in this story—into something that is mine.
> 
> And now I wish to most humbly invite you to join me as I weave the tale once over from here on out.  
> Without further ado, I sincerely hope you enjoy the remake of Manifest: reWIND.

Life is transient, fear is abundant, and death is inevitable. Once one process occurs, then so must the other, creating an endless chain of existence and destruction in the cycle of time in space. Where there is life, death will consume. Where there is death, birth will restore. And it is there created a balance created between the living and the dead. While in the middle of these two, there is fear—an instinct that exists to prolong that which is born, and postpone the end which is due for all things that begin.

The power to control, the power to change, to pull the strings of existence itself and rearrange the fabric of reality into a weaving of one's liking—all of that lay dormant within its sleeping vessel, a mere stone. Who would think that such a lethal weapon existed beneath the form of such a docile object? Any man would be wise to destroy it. It possessed power so immense that not a single soul should ever hope to control it, not even its creator.

Ah, how long ago was it when ithad been first created? That precious gem of immeasurable power, the very one that had caused havoc in Soul Society not too long ago, and had by now ultimately made the chaos the wicked sought after possible. Its manufacture was a mistake; an irreversible sin.

 _The hougyoku_.

It was the ultimate beacon; power absolute. It made real what would otherwise be perceived as impossible. It possessed the ability to manifest the desires of its host and cause a desire to come to fruition. It could manipulate even the purest of souls in ways unimaginable. And yet for something so valuable, it was awfully small, terribly fragile, and frighteningly vulnerable. Though asleep as it was, the hougyoku was quickly awakening.

Who'd have thought it could… perhaps… have a conscience of its own?

With its own desires, its own decisions, its own will?

After existing for so long, it was difficult not to develop even the slightest semblance of a soul. It was born with too much power, making it as indestructible as it was capable of causing massive destruction. Fallen into the wrong hands, taken and forced to do the bidding of a madman even while still in its dormant state--stolen from the barrier and the cage of invisibility and met as a means to an end. Not even yet at full potency, but when fed with the suffocating power of its new master, already it had become a weapon without equal. Conceiving a whole new kingdom built on strength and fear, giving command to a man that it even turned into a god.

As a stone, the hougyoku made that all happen.

Manifest into a body of innocence and monstrosity both at one time, and everything is ultimately changed.


	2. Resonance

Sitting, voiceless, in the stillness of... the void... Aizen felt nothing. He could feel no warmth, no cold; nothing. His senses had shut down. There was nothing for him to see, nothing for him to feel, nothing for him to taste, nothing for him to hear ~~—~~ not even his own breath or the beat of his own heart. No pain, no relief, no happiness or sadness or life. Not even the bitterness of his dry mouth. It was all empty; all was hollow. And yet somehow, he was awake. Without rest, not permitted with its luxury; but he was alive. And he was, again, alone. Trapped in his own mind, caged by the seals that locked him away along with his countless sins. Without even his own voice to accompany him in this haunting solitude. This was his punishment; the judgement had been passed.

It couldn’t be that bad, right? Stuck here, locked away for all eternity. He was not even allowed to feel any remorse for it. He was no longer alive, and yet he was not dead. He merely existed. And it was a torment that even he could only take so much of. You know what they say about a maddening silence? Was it possible to drive someone as deranged and broken as Aizen Sosuke even crazier? If he could have laughed just then, he would have. But no. He could not do that anymore. Gone was his power, his strength, his will. His plans were crushed, all that he had was taken from him in virtually an instant, and all that was left was... wait, no ~~—~~ that was taken away, too. And now? He was hollow, but not in the way he’d so long sought in the past. It was an emptiness with which he could smile as he felt himself shatter into pieces, only to be put back together piece by torturous piece ~~—~~ all just so he could break again. People cried when they were in pain, right? They cried to relieve it, right?

Well, you guessed it. Even _he_ felt it, that _need_ : the need to relieve himself of this agony. But he could only smile that crooked grin he always wore beneath the pitch black binds that sealed him. Did he deserve this? Of course he did. He’d known that from the start, and yet... if he could cry, then by Jove, the world will witness Aizen Sosuke cry! What a pitiful and ironic a sight that would be! The almighty god of Las Noches, the man that had brought terror and destruction to Soul Society and its Gotei 13 alike ~~—~~ weeping at last like the coward he’d always been!                

But no. It was impossible. He could do nothing, feel nothing, say nothing. Not anymo ~~—~~

 **_I don’t want this._ ** ****

... Oh? Was that a voice in his head? Just now? Wonderful, now he could actually speak to himself! Aizen was tempted to say hello, even in his mind, feeling for once _alive_ after all this time in confinement. On that note, how long had it been since he was thrown into this place? Had it been a day? A week? A month? A year? Maybe more, it didn’t matter. With no sense of time, he could only deduce that he was, indeed, _tired_. Time didn’t matter, he was drained all the same. And he imagined that he would continue to be drained until he was completely... _gone_. Until then, this should be fine. Speaking to himse ~~—~~ wait. Just now, was that... weeping? Somebody really was crying? There was no mistaking the sound. He could hear it. Someone was weeping, and it was impossible for it to be his own doing. His body was no longer capable of any such thing. And besides, the sound was too small, and meek, and frail. It did not belong here.

 **_Not like this._ **

It _was_ a voice! Someone else was here! But in his confinement? No, _in his mind_. How was that even— _ah_ - ** _AAAGH!_** H-HOT. IT WAS TOO HOT. His chest was burning up! Aizen could feel himself breaking, suffocating, and he couldn’t even move. He wanted to scream, but he could not even part his lips, let alone release the thick lump forming in his throat. Were he free, he’d have been thrashing wildly. Something was _literally_ breaking inside him, and it was _searing_. He recognized this feeling—it was something even worse than _dying_ —this sensation of _loss, a_ nd _betrayal_ , and _abandonment_. And then just like that, it was gone. And dazed as he was, difficult as it was for him to believe it, he heard something far too distinct for him to ignore. It came right from the centre of his heart, where the symbiotic stone nestled within his soul. For something like this to happen, he never would have thought it were possible.

The sound resonated through his whole body, straight from the hougyoku in his heart...

 **_CRACK_ ** **.**


End file.
